I have a head cold and I’m putting the finishing touches on my SBL Western Region presentation. Just getting those two things done is stretching my capabilities. So don’t expect abnormally interesting blogging here.
But if you want to read something abnormally interesting elsewhere, check out Helen De Cruz’ post, “Confirmation bias or expertise? The prevalence of theism in philosophy of religion,” over at The Prosblogion. She discusses a couple of the possible implications of there being about 7 out of 10 theists among the guild of philosophers of religion. Consider how her discussion would go if she were thinking of biblical scholars where the percentage of theists is at least as high if not much higher? In addition, biblical scholars, as a group, are likely to be far less diverse in their theistic beliefs than what I imagine philosophers of religion to be. I think most biblical scholars tend to self-identify as Christians or Jews with rather traditional beliefs; while I imagine the theistic commitments of philosophers of religion are, on average, somewhat broader. I could be wrong about that.
There may be data on the theistic diversity of biblical scholars but remember I have a head cold and I am also working on something else if I could only remember what it was.